Free Republic

A textbook monitoring group said that Maryland middle and high school students will be required to read about Islamic teachings that have been dumbed down and are products of political correctness. According to the New York Examiner, a new report issued by the American Textbook Council said that administrators who approved books for use in the Montgomery County school district caved into pressure by pro-Islamic groups seeking to present a less violent interpretation of Islam. Gilbert Sewall, director of the council, stated that, for example, the definition of jihad has gone through "amazing cultural reorchestration" in textbooks, losing any connotation...

A new report issued by the American Textbook Council says books approved for use in local school districts for teaching middle and high school students about Islam caved in to political correctness and dumbed down the topic at a critical moment in its history. "Textbook editors try to avoid any subject that could turn into a political grenade," wrote Gilbert Sewall, director of the council, who railed against five popular history texts for "adjust[ing] the definition of jihad or sharia or remov[ing] these words from lessons to avoid inconvenient truths." Sewall complains the word jihad has gone through an "amazing...

What happens in Texas does not stay in Texas: the state is one of the country’s biggest buyers of textbooks, and publishers are loath to produce different versions of the same material. The ideas that work their way into education here will surface in classrooms throughout the country. “ ‘Strengths and weaknesses’ are regular words that have now been drafted into the rhetorical arsenal of creationists,” said Kathy Miller, director of the Texas Freedom Network, a group that promotes religious freedom. The chairman of the state education board, Dr. Don McLeroy, a dentist in Central Texas, denies that the phrase...

DALLAS — Opponents of teaching evolution, in a natural selection of sorts, have gradually shed those strategies that have not survived the courts. Over the last decade, creationism has given rise to “creation science,” which became “intelligent design,” which in 2005 was banned from the public school curriculum in Pennsylvania by a federal judge. Now a battle looms in Texas over science textbooks that teach evolution, and the wrestle for control seizes on three words. None of them are “creationism” or “intelligent design” or even “creator.” The words are “strengths and weaknesses.” Starting this summer, the state education board will...

TIPP CITY, Ohio — When 83-year-old Edmund Jackson uses a hand trimmer to clip the grass, one of the 22 pieces of shrapnel in his right arm dances under the skin of his wrist. ---- snip ---- The schoolbook program is designed to spark greater interest in history by giving students an emotional connection to it and showing them it’s made by real people like themselves.

NEW YORK — Can it be true? That Islamic schools in the United States teach hatred towards American Christians and Jews? The Washington Post on Monday revealed that one such school outside Washington, D.C., uses textbooks teaching 11th graders that "the Day of Judgment can't come until Jesus Christ returns to Earth, breaks the cross and converts everyone to Islam, and until Muslims start attacking Jews." Other accredited Islamic schools in America have world maps on classroom walls that exclude Israel. Some such schools promote class discussions that portray Usama bin Laden as "simply the victim of … prejudice" against...

History textbooks being used by hundreds of thousands of public school students across the U.S. are blatantly promoting Islam, according to a new report by an independent organization that researches and reviews textbooks. WND has reported several times on issues involving the promotion of Islam in public school texts, including a recent situation in which California parents complained their children were being taught that "jihad" to Muslims means "doing good works. The new report is from the American Textbook Council, which was established in 1989 as an independent national research organization to review social studies textbooks and advance the quality...

One of the authors of "Mosaic of Thought" has apologized for mistakenly writing that Spartanburg was the scene of some violent incidents during the desegregation era. Inaccurate college textbook slams Spartanburg Violent integration incidents occurred in another city; errors to be fixed in 2nd edition By Linda Conley Published: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 | Updated: 9:16 am Picture this: A teacher is discussing with her students the violence and unrest that occurred in America when public schools integrated almost 40 years ago. The example she is using from her class textbook is the violence that occurred in Spartanburg County. The...

College students and their families are rightly outraged about the bankrupting costs of textbooks that have nearly tripled since the 1980s, mainly because of marginally useful CD-ROMs and other supplements. A bill pending in Congress would require publishers to sell “unbundled” versions of the books — minus the pricey add-ons. Even more important, it would require publishers to reveal book prices in marketing material so that professors could choose less-expensive titles. The bill is a good first step. But colleges and universities will need to embrace new methods of textbook development and distribution if they want to rein in runaway...

It seems like a distant past now, but when Sen. Barack Obama delivered his "A More Perfect Union" speech in mid-March, commentators were quick to call it "historic." Now, though, as we are — or he is — knee deep in "bitterness" and loss in Pennsylvania, chances may be slimmer that his speech will make it into mainstream history textbooks. "At this point, it's too early to tell if it's soft soap or historic," says Gil Sewell, president of the American Textbook Council, a New York-based nonprofit group that reviews history and social studies textbooks. "I don't think the speech...

An advanced textbook on American government is drawing criticism from scholars for alleged errors concerning climate change and separation of church and state. The advanced textbook in question is called American Government (Houghton Mifflin) and was authored by James Q. Wilson and John J. Dilulio, Jr. Associated Press reports that a New Jersey high school student pointed out apparent errors in the textbook to the Center for Inquiry, which then released a "scathing report." Under criticism are statements that cause students to question whether the debate over "global warming" is really over, and whether the issue of "separation of church...

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

A former teacher at an Islamic school, who alleged that it taught an offensive and racist view of non-Muslims, has been awarded £70,000 by an employment tribunal after winning his case for unfair dismissal. Colin Cook told the tribunal in Watford that pupils were taught from Arabic books that likened Jews and Christians to “monkeys” and “pigs” at The King Fahad Academy, which is funded and run by the Saudi Arabian Government. The tribunal ruled that Mr Cook, a British Muslim, was unfairly dismissed from his £36,000-a-year post at the school in Acton, West London, in December 2006 after blowing...

Talk about a civics lesson: A high-school senior has raised questions about political bias in a popular textbook on U.S. government, and legal scholars and top scientists say the teen's criticism is well-founded. They say "American Government" by conservatives James Wilson and John Dilulio presents a skewed view of topics from global warming to separation of church and state. The publisher now says it will review the book, as will the College Board, which oversees college-level Advanced Placement courses used in high schools. Student Matthew LaClair of Kearny, N.J., recently brought his concerns to the attention of the Center for...

McGraw-Hill Cos. spent $960,000 lobbying the government in 2007 on a range of issues including education and oversight of credit-rating agencies. According to a disclosure form posted Feb. 14 by the Senate's public records office, McGraw-Hill spent $440,000 in the first half of 2007 and $520,000 in the second half on lobbying. McGraw-Hill, which publishes textbooks and rates credit quality, lobbied on issues including the protection of intellectual property, No Child Left Behind and legislation affecting oversight of credit-rating agencies.

The St. Lucie County School District and the Consulate General of Mexico in Miami plan to announce Monday a plan to distribute free Spanish-language textbooks to five schools, create some sister-schools and, perhaps, expand after-school tutoring options for parents with limited English-speaking abilities. The partnership was established by the district's Hispanic Advisory Council. The Consul General of Mexico in Miami, Juan Miguel Gutierrez Tinoco, is scheduled to attend a press conference and ceremony at 5 p.m. Monday at the school district offices in Fort Pierce in which he will deliver the textbooks and discuss the partnership. He also plans to...

I was sorting out some papers over the weekend ... and came upon one of my favorites. It's a page out of an "Activity Book" published by Harcourt Brace, now called Harcourt Education. This page is entitled "Rights & Wrongs" and comes from the Harcourt social studies textbook "United States in Modern Times." The heading for this page says: "In the late eighteenth century many people complained that the Constitution did not list rights of the people. So the authors of the Constitution decided to write a Bill of Rights. These first ten amendments to the Constitution state simply and...

(IsraelNN.com) A leader of Mahmoud Abbas's US-backed Fatah party has come out in support of the terrorist war being fought against US and British forces in Iraq. PA text books for school children also push attacks on American and British forces Mahmoud Ismail, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, expressed his support for the war on the US during an interview on official Palestinian Authority (PA) TV, which is under the control of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The clip was recorded and translated by Palestinian Media Watch, which monitors incitement on PA television. Ismail further defined the US -Britain...

A London school attended by the children of notorious hate preachers was forced to shred 2,000 textbooks used to poison pupils' minds after a public outcry, an employment tribunal has heard. Colin Cook, who formerly taught English at the King Fahad Academy in Acton, told a tribunal how pupils as young as five were taught from Arabic textbooks describing Jews as " monkeys" and Christians as "pigs". Under public pressure the academy agreed to destroy the books - but not before photocopying them for future use, he told the Watford tribunal. He also claimed that headteacher Dr Sumaya Alyusuf had...

School Textbooks Latest Target of Sexual Apartheid January 25, 2008 Adnkronos International ­ AKI Iranian authorities are looking at new restrictions that will create different school textbooks for boys and girls. Ali Reza Ali Ahmadi, responsible to the interim public education minister, told a seminar on textbooks there was a need to provide students with books according to "the requirements of age and sex" to satisfy their particular needs. "The spiritual, physical, and mental needs of boys and girls are not identical, and therefore textbooks that give them information cannot be the same," Ali Ahmadi told the seminar. "The goal...